Calumet & Hecla 2-8-0 "Consolidation" Locomotives in the USA

Class Kitchigami (Locobase 8533)

Data from Baldwin Locomotive Works Specification for Engines as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University Volume 12, p 204 and Volume 13, p. 123. See also [] for roster information and Reports of the United States Commissioners to the Universal Exposition at Paris in 1889 to the House of Representatives, 51st Congress, 1st Session, Ex. Doc 450 Part 3 (Washington, Government Printing Office, 1891), p. 494-495, which identified the engines as belonging to the "Calumet & Hecla Mining Company". See also See also John A Hall, "In the Northern Peninsula of Michigan," Locomotive Engineering, Volume 8, Number 2 (February 1895), pp. 67-71.

According to Connelly's Baldwin list, this pair was produced by Baldwin in consecutive Octobers, works numbers 7709 in 1885 as Kichigami, 8199 in 1886 as Manitou.

Wootten boilers and fireboxes didn't appear on many non-anthracite-burning locomotives, but this pair of Consolidations bought by the Calumet & Hecla Consolidated Mining Company must have seemed a good idea at first. The railway was laid at slightly less than standard gauge and had the big Wootten firebox for burning buckwheat or pea anthracite coal. To compensate for the short boiler tubes that such a design carried, the builder provided a combustion chamber that added to the direct heating surface area. The grate also had water tubes. The whistle was required to have "heavy, deep tones."

A photograph (engraving) depicts a locomotive with a very generous amount of overhead protection for the fireman standing on the footplate behind the long firebox. The roof extended over six feet of the tender, but does not appear to have offered any defense to either side.

But the specification sheet for the 1885 order contains the following note: "for criticism of this engine see letter of Mr L S Woodbury July 12/86", while the 1886 order for Manitou includes "For Performance of Engine see letter L S Woodbury Nov. 24-1886". Locobase hasn't determined what the exact description of the design's deficiencies might have been. It's possible that the locomotives proved difficult to fire correctly--Wootten boilers used a thin fire and a soft draft to burn the lightweight coal. A contemporary report said that one engineer ran both Woottens--"one is in the shop while he runs the other."

One home-grown feature was locomotive superintendent W A Child's "...peculiar device under the firebox and back of the wheels, that is employed to guide the engine when backing up, by rigidly fastening a connection to the tank trucks, making them act as guiding trucks; this can be thrown into or out of service by use of a lever."

The website roster notes that both Kitchigami and Manitou were later rebuilt with conventional rear cabs and Belpaire fireboxes. This may have occurred when the railroad was converted to standard gauge in 1907. They served the H< for almost 60 years each before retiring in 1944 and 1945, respectively.